*Photo from the Jefferson City News Tribune*
The hottest team in the NHL has struck again. Kevin Stenlund scored, Matthew Tkachuk had a hat trick, and the Florida Panthers defeated the St. Louis Blues with a 5-1 victory on Tuesday night in St. Louis.
The Panthers wrapped up a 4 game road trip with this game and have been on a tear as of late, having won 8 straight games to improve to 26-12-2 on the season. The main driver of play was Tkachuk, who had a 4 point night and picked up his 5th career hat trick to help the Panthers extend their win streak.
Asked about the hat trick, Tkachuk said "It felt amazing. I said it this morning, I scored a lot of goals in this rink when I was younger, I haven't scored much at the NHL level, so I'm glad I was saving them up for tonight."
Brayden Schenn started the scoring in this one, giving the Blues a 1-0 lead with his 9th goal of the season, coming 3:24 into the game. Stenlund countered for the Panthers with his 8th goal of the season to tie the game 1-1. The only goal of the second period came from Sam Reinhart, who made it 2-1 Panthers with Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov getting assists.
Early in the 3rd period, Tkachuk padded the Panthers lead to 3-1 on his 9th goal of the season, with the lone assist going to Carter Verhaeghe. At the 5:57 mark of the 3rd, Tkachuk scored his second goal of the night to make it a 4-1 game. With the net empty and 57 seconds left on the clock, he sealed the hat trick with an assist from Dmitry Kulikov.
Florida head coach Paul Maurice said of the win that "I don't think any of it was easy for us. We had no legs, so we had to make a whole bunch of mental adjustments as the game went on. Part of it was just what it's going to look like. I'm really happy with this win as much as any win we've had on this trip for sure."
Manning the goal for the Panthers on the road trip finale was Anthony Stolarz, who improved his record to 6-3-1 in 10 starts with a win. Stolarz stopped all but one of the 30 shots he was tested with, giving him a .967 save percentage.
Getting the start for the Blues on the other end of the ice was Joel Hofer, who couldn't match Stolarz. Hofer turned aside 26 out of the 30 shots on goal he saw from the Panthers, recording a .867 save percentage as his record dipped to 7-7-0.
Schenn, the Blues captain, said after the game that "I actually feel we deserved better offensively. We had some looks, power play had some looks and the goalie made some saves, but then in saying that, third period, I don't think we were assertive enough, hungry enough to play with it in their end more and it resulted in them spending time on our own end and getting deflections and goals and before we know it, the game's out of reach."
Both teams get back in action with home games on Thursday night. The Panthers return home to take on the Los Angeles Kings, with Sergei Bobrovsky expected to get the start. Jordan Binnington is the likely starter for the Blues as they face off against the New York Rangers.
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